Roshi Wendy Egyoku Nakao has served as the Abbot and Head Teacher of ZCLA since 1999, succeeding Abbot Emeritus Roshi Bernie Glassman.

Roshi Egyoku first encountered Zen practice in 1975, when she did a seven-day Zen sesshin on a dare. Following this plunge, she devoted her life to the Dharma, finding her way to ZCLA and Maezumi Roshi in 1978. In 1982, she ordained with the Venerable Taungpulu Sayadaw in Bodh Gaya, India. In 1983, she ordained as a Zen Priest with the Taizan Maezumi, Roshi, and trained with him until his death in 1995. She continued her training in Yonkers, NY, with Roshi Bernie Glassman from whom she received Preceptor and Dharma Transmission (Shiho) in the White Plum Lineage in 1996, and the Seal of Approval (Inka) in 2004. She is a founding member of the Zen Peacemaker Community.

Roshi Egyoku grew up in Hawaii in a family of Japanese and Portuguese ancestry. Her interest in spirituality was fueled at an early age by a fierce drive to find meaning in the context of differences. She attended the University of Washington, Seattle, where she received degrees in East Asian Studies and Library Science. Her life partner, Eberhard Fetz, is a neuroscientist at the University of Washington.

Roshi is the co-editor with Sensei Eve Myonen Marko of Appreciate Your Life by Taizan Maezumi (Shambhala 2000), and co-editor with Sensei John Daishin Buksbazen of the newly published editions by Wisdom Publications of On Zen Practice: Body, Breath, and Mind (2002) and The Hazy Moon of Enlightenment (2007).